David Laws: The hon. Gentleman is right: ultimately, Ministers have accountability for determining tax strategy and pursuing it. I am sure he is also right to say that revenue Departments and Treasury officials, if given clear and helpful advice about how Ministers want the tax system to develop, would deliver the necessary policies. However, my sense of the way things have worked in practice over recent years is that that has not actually happened, partly perhaps because much of the tax policy expertise has been in the individual revenue Departments rather than centrally. I may be na-ve in thinking that this reform will change that aspect of the system, but I live in hope.
	As we debate the detail of the Bill, we must remember that many people outside in the real world, especially in the business world, will not be as interested in the small elements and small changes in the Bill as in what it will mean over time for the tax system as a whole. David Frost, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, summed up the general view of tax practitioners and business men about the British tax system when he wrote recently:
	"Britain's tax system has come into being piece by piece over the years . . . often without regard to the complexity of the whole. Our tax system is already over-complicated, but each year brings new additions and alterations. Tax simplification is often identified by the government as a goal, but progress is rarely achieved."
	I hope that setting up the merged department will be the opportunity for a more coherent tax strategy and that it will galvanise the Government into simplifying the tax system, because without simplification the benefits of merger will be much less than they might otherwise be.

Eye Treatment

CORRECTION

2 December 2004: In column 777, immediately before question 20, insert:

Graham Allen: Will the Solicitor-General commend the work of Nottinghamshire Crown Prosecution Service and its chief prosecutor, Kate Carty, in introducing information technology systems? Will she also ensure that excellent IT is complementary to, and not a substitute for, the softer skills of local prosecutors meeting police officers and the local community informally to deal with misunderstandings and undertake a process of mutual education?

Harriet Harman: My hon. Friend is right and I thank him for his comments on the workings of the CPS. Of course it is important that people communicate not only through IT but in person and that the CPS work closely not only with the police and the courts but with the local community and MP. I welcome the involvement that he seeks with the CPS, which is after all an accountable service, although it works independently.